372
We WALK (mander.xyz)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago

It's been ages since I've done any serious science schooling so I'm hoping some random Internet people can help me out.

When evolution like this occurs, it's typically not one fish right? The idea is that several fish develop a trait that is beneficial that leads them away from water (or whatever), which they thrive in, causing them to reproduce with those same traits.

At what point do scientists say that enough change has occurred that they are a new species?

[-] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

What separates species? Oh boy, do I not have an answer for you! We usually don't have enough fossils to ask that question, and now that we're cataloging so many fossils it's starting to bring up questions like this.

We clearly have two gropus of T.rex skeletons, gracile and robust. Are they different sexes or different species? How about proposed Spinosaurus species, are those just interspecies variation? What about homonin fossils? We can't even agree on the genus, let alone the species.

Well forget fossils, what about living species? Plants have shown an amazing ability to hybridize between very distinct groups, and animals can form ring species where two populations can't interbreed, but can share genes through a string of other populations! How do you classify that‽

Great yt video on the concept of species if you have 15 minutes.

this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
372 points (97.4% liked)

Science Memes

10799 readers
2610 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS